GOOD degree of attention lias been given to the architecture 

 of suburban and country houses, within the last ten or twelve 

 years. The late Mr. Downing was the first to make any real 

 ^ impression on the public mind, concerning it. With his graceful 

 and powerful pen he appealed to the good sense, the domestic feel- 

 ings, and national pride of his countrymen. He directed their 

 attention, in the most persuasive manner, to the superior comfort of 

 good, well-planned houses, and to the influence of the beautiful on 

 minds and morals of the people. In the preface to his Country 

 Houses^ he says : 



"There are three excellent reasons why my countrymen should have good houses. 

 "The first, is because a good House (and by this I mean a fitting, tasteful, and significant 

 dwelling) is a powerful means of civilization. A nation, whose rural population is content 

 to live in mean luits and miserable hovels, is certain to be behind its neighbors in education, 

 the arts, and all that makes up the external signs of progress. With the perception of propor- 

 tion, sj-mmetry, order and beauty, awakens the desire for possession, and with them comes that 

 refinement of manners which distinguishes a civilized from a coarse and brutal people. So 

 long as men are forced to dwell in log huts and follow a hunter's life, we must not be sur- 

 prised at lynch law and the use of the bowie knife. But, when smiling lawns and tasteful 

 cottages begin to embellish a country, we know that order and culture are established. 

 And, as the first incentive towards this change is awakened in the minds of most men by 

 the perception of beauty and superiority in external objects, it must follow that the inter- 

 est manifested in the Rural Architecture of a country like this, has much to do with the 

 ]>rogress of its civilization. 



"The second reason is, because the individual home has a great social value for a people. 

 Whatever new systems may be needed for the regeneration of an old and enfeebled nation, 

 we are persuaded that, in America, not only is the distinct family the best social form, but 

 those elementary forces which gave rise to the highest genius and the finest character may, 

 for the most part, be traced back to the farm-house and the rural cottage. It is the sol- 

 itude and freedom of the family home in the country which constantly preserves the 

 purity of the nation, and invigorates its intellectual powers. Tlie battle of life, carried on 

 in cities, gives a sliarper edge to the weapon of character, but its temper is, for the most 

 part, fixed amid those communings with nature and the family, where individuality takes 

 its most natural and strongest development. 



"The third reason is, because there is a moral influence in a country home — when, 

 among an educated, truthful, and refined people, it is an echo of their cbai'acter — which 

 is more powerful than any mere oral teachings of virtue and morality. That family 

 whose religion lies away from its threshold, will show but slender residts from the best 

 teachings, compared with another where the family heartli is made a central point of tlie 

 Beautiful and the Good. And much of that feverish unrest and want of balance between 

 the desire and the fulfdment of life, is calmed and adjusted by the pursuit of tastes which 

 result in making a little world of the family home, where trutlifulness, beauty and order 

 have the largest dominion. 



January 1, 1855. 



A 1 



